Italy debates legal protections for healthcare workers

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is discussing a government bill aimed at making the ‘criminal shield’ for doctors and nurses permanent. This legislation seeks to address legal liability in contexts where healthcare facilities face severe shortages of personnel and resources.

Under the proposed law, criminal liability for healthcare workers would be limited to cases of gross negligence when they have adhered to established guidelines or good practices. Furthermore, judges would be required to consider organizational deficiencies and the scarcity of human and material resources when determining the degree of fault. This change also extends to civil liability, shifting the focus of compensation toward the healthcare facility in cases where individual practitioners are limited by systemic shortages.

Separately, legal precedents from the Italian Supreme Court (Cassazione) have clarified the statute of limitations for filing medical malpractice complaints. The three-month deadline for such complaints begins not from the date of the medical error or the discovery of physical harm, but from the moment the patient gains full awareness that the health consequences were specifically caused by a medical error.